If You're Buying A New iPhone, Set A Calendar Reminder For Apple's Return Deadline

If you’re planning to buy a brand-new iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max or iPhone XR, there’s one big thing you’ll want to do after you’ve secured your preorder (if you manage to get one with reasonable shipping times). Make an appointment on your calendar for iPhone pickup day... and set a calendar appointment for exactly two weeks later. Call it “Are You Really Sure?” Day.

Here’s why. Apple offers a 14-day return policy for many items you can buy from its online or retail stores. If you aren’t satisfied with your new iPhone, you’re having buyer’s remorse, or you could really use that $1229, $1629, $1799, or whatever else you paid for your new iPhone, you can return it to an Apple store, no questions asked, within two weeks of purchase. (You can also ship it back to Apple in the mail, for free, if you prefer to go that route.)

No, you cannot bring in an iPhone you purchased at Telstra, for example, and expect Apple to process a return. Not going to happen — but you knew that anyway, right? Also, make sure you’ve kept everything in Apple’s pretty little iPhone box, as your iPhone must be “in the original packaging, including any accessories, manuals and documentation”. And I probably don’t need to tell you that your iPhone should work, not be scratched to hell, and not be something you “accidentally” let fly off a rooftop.

Apple’s policy is great for those looking to sell their older devices on a site such as Gumtree or eBay, because you can see if you get any traction on your old phone in those 14 days before fully committing to your new one. If nobody’s buying, and you don’t feel like committing to that $1799 iPhone without being able to sell your old one to offset the cost, you’ll have a little wiggle room.

It’s that time again. Time for your annual frantic search to find all of the original packaging for your older iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch. That’s the best way to sell it for the highest possible sum, after all, before you plunk down a preorder for whatever Apple’s announcing this week.

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